Christmas Bells Are Ringing
by tbehartoo
Summary: Nathaniel is visiting his cousin's house for Hanukkah when he gets a call from the Queen Bee herself! He'd better take this call, it might be important.


Nathaniel felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out and smiled at the phone number displayed. He accepted the call but didn't speak until he made it to the hall.

"Hey," he said quietly into the device.

"In case you were wondering, I'm calling from hell," boredom oozed in response to his greeting.

"Hello to you, too, Chloe," he chuckled. "I would think you'd be having a great time at the Heroes' Day holiday fundraiser."

"You'd be thinking wrong," Chloe said, a yawn underscored her point as she added. "I've already taken selfies with all my fans, so I'm stuck at this table waiting for the line to go down for Ladybug. If it wouldn't akumatize someone I'd put myself at the front of her line, but I really didn't want to ruin this perfect hair day."

Nathaniel chuckled again. Becoming Queen Bee had been good for Chloe. Once she started getting attention for her own good deeds, and not for just being famous as someone's daughter, she had learned not to take other people's feelings for granted. She'd also been making progress in not being awful to anyone she considered less important than herself. It's true that sometimes she could still get a little...waspish, but for the most part, there was a very little sting in Chloe's words any more.

'Wouldn't want to ruin that," he replied as he started pacing the hall. "Not that most days aren't perfect where your hair is concerned."

"You've got that right," Chloe said, and he could swear he heard her preening. "What are you up to?"

"Well, right now I'm talking to you and walking up and down the hall at my oldest cousin's house." He heard her groan and could easily imagine her rolling her eyes. Nathaniel continued, "When you called, I was being questioned by my Aunties as to why I am still single and why haven't I brought any dates to our family get-togethers."

Chloe snickered. "And what did you say to that?"

"I said 'Excuse me, but I really must take this call' and then escaped the room as fast as possible."

This time Chloe actually laughed, and Nathaniel loved that sound.

"You are going to have to go back and answer their questions eventually," she teased.

"Uh-uh," he replied. "I just have to stay out here till they start dinner and then I get to sit at the kids' table and help my cousin's twin girls cut their turkey."

"Twins?"

She sounded surprised.

"Yeah, they're about five and the cutest things you've ever seen, present company excluded," Nathaniel said as he ran his fingers through his bangs and rested against a wall.

"Naturally," was the only reply he received.

"You know," he paused then said the first thing that came to mind, "twins run in my family. I hope that I end up with some as nice as her two girls."

"Does the red hair run in the family, too?" she asked eagerly. "I could just see you with two little strawberry blondes."

"Yes, but it's the other side of the family," he replied. Her silence prompted him to add, "The twins are on my dad's side and the red hair is on my mom's."

He was still met by silence.

"Um, Chloe?"

More silence. He started pacing the hall again.

"ChlooOOooeeeeEEEE?"

"Oh, sorry for that," she sounded a bit flustered. "That little girl I saved from an Akuma last week came by and wanted a hug and a pic."

Surprised, he blurted, "Does that happen often?"

"Of course," she replied sounding scandalized. "I am a beloved hero that is in high demand."

"You do seem to be pretty popular with the kiddos, Chlo."

"Yeah," Nathaniel could hear some pride in her voice as she said, "I'm actually _the_ favorite among kids aged four to seven."

He couldn't help the chuckle as he asked, "How do you know that?"

"Max and Markov ran the numbers or something," she scoffed. "Nath, I'm so boooooooored."

"Sorry to hear that," he wasn't, and she could probably tell. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Just," she huffed, "just keep talking to me I guess." She hurried to tack on, "Until this is over and I can leave, I mean."

"Okay, well, we've talked about _your_ hair, _my_ nosy aunts, twins and red hair being dominant features in my family, and that you are beloved by very young children. What would you like to discuss next?"

"Well, uh, like maybe..." she seemed reluctant to speak which was so unlike her that it caught his full attention and he stopped moving altogether.

He almost thought she wasn't going to answer when her words tumbled out, "What are you doing on Christmas Eve?"

"Oh, uh, nothing?" Nathaniel felt like a loser when admitting that and a blush began to darken his cheeks. "I mean, we'll be done with Hanukkah tomorrow night, and I really didn't feel like going to Marinette's Christmas party, since I haven't really kept in touch with anyone she mentioned would be there," he was rambling, but he couldn't stop himself. "I suppose I could try to contact some of them before then, but I was never that close to anyone other than Alix and she's, she's spending her Christmas in Cairo, so-"

"So you're available?" Chloe interrupted.

"Available?" the word took him by surprise.

"You haven't made any plans for the evening?" she clarified.

"No."

"Would you consider joining me at the Grand Parisian?" her voice had lost her usual confidence, which was even more surprising for Nathaniel.

"You mean like for one of your fancy dinner dances?" he asked warily. "Because I really don't know that I could find formal wear in only two days."

"Oh please, Nath," the usual level of snark was back in her voice, "I could get you fantastic formal wear with only two hour's notice. That's not the problem." She paused and it sounded like she had moved away from the crowd before speaking again. "No, um, Daddy's flown to New York to spend Christmas with Mumsy, so we're not throwing a Christmas party this year. I was hoping that maybe you could just come over." She was almost whispering by the time she said, "I don't want to spend Christmas Eve alone. Can you please come?"

Nathaniel was speechless.

"Nath?" Chloe's voice was still soft but there was a tone that he recognized from the times when she used to throw tantrums.

"Isn't Sabrina-" he said as he groped for words.

"Spending some well deserved time with her family in the chalet I reserved for them over the holiday," Chloe said. "In the past," she sounded resigned as she said it, "I've taken her away from her family a lot when they needed her, and that was how I tried to start making it up to them."

"That's- nice of you," Nathaniel said for want of anything else he could think to say.

"Well, my counselor suggested that I try to find something that showed Sabrina how much her friendship means to me, but still lets us have some distance while we work to re-establish proper boundaries."

"Oh... well ... that sounds really important," the uncertainty in his tone made him wince.

Chloe chuckled but the good humor was gone.

"You've gotten very good at being tactful, Nath," she said. "I owe you, too, you know. You've forgiven me for being-"

"More than a little brutal at times," he said not wanting to go over _those_ conversations again. "But that was in the past. The Chloe I know now is confident _**and**_ kind, she's strong _**and**_ sincere, candid but _**not**_ cruel."

"That's nice of you to notice, but there's still a long way to go," a sigh huffed out of her.

"I'm confident you'll make it to being the kind of person you're trying to be," he said sincerely.

"So you'll let me make things up to you?" Chloe asked hopefully.

"What do you mean?"

"You'll come over and let me treat you to the best Christmas Eve ever?"

" I-"

Nathaniel paused for a moment but did he really have anything to lose by accepting Chloe's invitation.

"What time should I be there?" he finally said.

"1600. Oh, they need me to take group pictures," she said hurriedly. "I'll be right there," she called to someone before returning her attention to Nathaniel. "Thanks, for agreeing to come."

"I'll be there with bells on," he replied.

"Okay, bye."

Was she running? She sounded a little breathless.

"Bye," he breathed before the connection was severed.

Nathaniel looked up to see the grinning face of his Grandma. Oh, this could not be good.

"We're about to start dinner, bubbeleh," she said and grabbed his arm to walk with him to the dining room. "So who's this Chloe that is so confident and kind? And why are you wearing bells to see her?"

Nathaniel's face flared to bright red. This was it. His death record would read, "Cause of death: Embarrassment" and he'd be okay with that if it meant he didn't have to answer any of her questions.

"Never mind," the old woman said as she patted his shoulder, "we'll find out all about her when you bring her to dinner next Shabbat."

All Nathaniel could do was hide behind the double facepalm as he tried, and failed, to keep the old woman from seeing the smile that adorned lips.


End file.
